Roast pork loin with lavender honey-glazed apricots

Method

1. Heat the oven to 260C/240C fan/gas 10 (if your oven doesn’t go this high set it to the maximum). Rub the bottom of the pork loin with a little oil, and season well with salt. Put it in the middle of a baking tray with a shallow lip and scatter a generous amount of table salt over the skin. Roast for 25-30 minutes, by which point the crackling should be completely or almost completely done. Turn the oven down to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and cook for a further 50-60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle of the meat comes out piping hot, or a digital thermometer reads 65°C or above.
2. While the pork skin is crackling, toss the potatoes and garlic bulb with the remaining olive oil and thyme in your largest baking tray and season well with salt. Once the oven temperature comes down, put them in the oven underneath the pork to roast.
3. When the pork has 25 minutes left, remove the tin from the oven, add the apricots and gently toss them in the roasting juices around the pork. Drizzle the apricots with honey, scatter with salt, then add the rosemary sprigs and lavender and return the tin to the oven for the final 20 minutes of cooking. Once the pork is cooked, the apricots should be soft but still with some shape. Remove from the oven and set aside.
4. Toss the potatoes in the tray, remove the garlic bulb and move the potatoes up to the top shelf of the oven. Increase the temperature to 200C/ 180C/ gas 6 and continue cooking for around 20 minutes more until they’re really golden and crisp.
5. Meanwhile, carefully transfer the apricots to a plate and put the pork on a board to rest. Cover the apricots with tin foil to keep warm, then scrape all the sticky juices and caramelised meaty bits from the baking tray into a pan with the rosemary. Add the brandy and chicken stock, then squeeze the garlic from the skins and add to the pan, mashing with a wooden spoon. Put the pan on the hob, bring to a simmer and bubble rapidly for around 5-6 minutes, until the juices are quite syrupy. Strain it if you want it to look neat or leave the garlic and rosemary sprigs in there. Keep warm, covered, over a low heat, while the potatoes finish cooking.
6. Once the pork has rested and the potatoes are crisp, carve the meat and arrange on a platter with the apricots. Spoon a little of the sauce over the apricots, then put the rest in a jug on the table for people to pour over their meat. Serve the pork, apricots, potatoes and sauce with a radicchio and watercress salad, simply dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.